Which powders to stock up on and use

[Ojallday]

Ok guys I currently have 10 lbs of blue dot I intend to use to reload 9mm, 45 acp & 44 magnum. unfortunately I only have 2lbs of IMR4227 for reloading my 500 smith and Wesson. I will also be using ARCOMP for 223 & 308.

My questions to you are

Did I make a wise selection on power?

Would you choose other powders?

what is a reasonable safety stock to have of each?

[Meety Peety]

There are a lot of different powders you can use, and there really is no right powder. Whatever works well in your gun and is easily obtained (Or you have a lot of it already) is just fine.

Personally I like W231 and Longshot for 45s. I have 6-7 powders that will work, but those are the two that work the best for me right now. I have tried a few loads of each of them and picked the ones that I shoot the most accurately, while obtaining the recoil that I want. Then, if two are close I look at how many grains go into each load (less equates to more shots per lb) and how clean they are in the gun.

I use a different powder for every caliber. Obviously, many of the powders I have could work just fine for all of them.

[Metal God]

Well what you should do is add the number of rounds you shoot a year of all calibers you own . Times that buy 2 and that's the minimum stock you should have on hand at all times . This will allow you to get through a 2 year drought/panic with out any drop off in shooting . Or you can just say enough for 1k of every caliber . Now thoughs numbers are a mark you NEVER go below . That means if your going to shoot 1k of 9mm this year . You should have the ability to load 3k .

[CK_32]

Reply to title: All the ones I don't use

[jericho89]

Or you can just say enough for 1k of every caliber . Now thoughs numbers are a mark you NEVER go below . That means if your going to shoot 1k of 9mm this year .

Wow you don't shoot a lot

As stated figure out how much you plan to shoot a year then decide how many years of stock you want to keep on hand. Two years is not a bad minimum. So when you reach that mark look for a good deal and stock up.

As for what types of powder, find the ones that both you and your guns like and keep those on hand.

More important don't forget to match stock in primers. You can always find an alternative powder, but when primers dry up it is usually across the board and you can be SOL .

[TomReloaded]

I like to keep 2lb of pistol and rifle powder on hand. I shoot about 5k pistol 2k rifle a year. Its plenty.

[sl0re10]

Wow you don't shoot a lot

As stated figure out how much you plan to shoot a year then decide how many years of stock you want to keep on hand. Two years is not a bad minimum. So when you reach that mark look for a good deal and stock up.

As for what types of powder, find the ones that both you and your guns like and keep those on hand.

More important don't forget to match stock in primers. You can always find an alternative powder, but when primers dry up it is usually across the board and you can be SOL .

I guess if you don't shoot a lot; its cheaper to have more years of powder stocked.

But at least two years is nice. As your using it; you have a lot of time to track down its replacement.

[Ojallday]

Thank you all for your help

[BigBronco]

I like to keep 2lb of pistol and rifle powder on hand. I shoot about 5k pistol 2k rifle a year. Its plenty.

Call me confused. 2# of powder loads how many rounds? Certainly not 2K of rifle.

[MrElectric03]

I have been picking up whatever I can find that is versatile. I ended up with 5 or 6 lbs of 800x, three pounds of blue dot, three pounds of PB, and a couple pounds of IMR3031 for 223. When powders are more available I'll stick with powders I can use for most anything like titegroup, win231, and Varget.

[Fjold]

Call me confused. 2# of powder loads how many rounds? Certainly not 2K of rifle.

I get between 80 and 300 rifle rounds per pound of powder.

OP, You buy one pound containers of different powders to work up loads with. With rifles, you wind up burning up most of that trying to find a load. Once you find the load you want to use, buy an 8 Lbs. bottle of that powder and then start the load development on the next rifle cartridge.

You wind up with a lot off partial 1 Lbs. containers of powder that you can use developing loads for other cartridges.

[enzo357]

Pick up some titegroup. Does a lot of different handgun rounds.

[rsrocket1]

Ok guys I currently have 10 lbs of blue dot I intend to use to reload 9mm, 45 acp & 44 magnum. unfortunately I only have 2lbs of IMR4227 for reloading my 500 smith and Wesson. I will also be using ARCOMP for 223 & 308.

My questions to you are

Did I make a wise selection on power?

If your objective is to get the maximum velocity out of each round and don't care about economy or don't want to ever shoot reduced recoil load, then yes, Blue Dot will do that. BTW Natchez had 4227 in 1# and 8# jugs available yesterday at around 8:30AM.

Would you choose other powders?

For variety yes, at least some faster powder like Unique/Universal/Titegroup/Win231 and some really fast powder like Red Dot/Clays/Titewad.

what is a reasonable safety stock to have of each?

You are in good shape with your Blue Dot. Since in general, CA law says you can't have more than 20 pounds of smokeless powder, choose wisely or load fast if you want to get considerably more powder. The restrictions are for unloaded powder and it takes quite a while to load up 10 pounds of pistol powder. Just want to make sure you don't get in trouble with fire codes. You can easily load up 8 pounds of rifle powder, especially for .308

[FLIGHT762]

You made a good choice of AR Comp for the .223 and .308.